PHOTOS: Burmese troops patrol ‘ghost town’ Laogai

DVB reporter Hkun Zaw Oo says many shops and houses show signs of looting. A rescue worker told him that 17 dead bodies had been discovered in the streets on Monday morning, and that skirmishes in the streets tend to be heard every night, despite an official curfew.

Burma's President Thein Sein has vowed "not to lose an inch" of territory in clashes with Kokang and Palaung ethnic rebels, state media announced on Tuesday. Meanwhile, reinforcements from Mandalay and other military command centres have arrived in Laogai and have joined the Northeast Command troops, who patrol the deserted streets by day, and impose checkpoints around the town.

Not so long ago, Laogai [Laukkai] was a busy town of casinos and cross-border trade, hustling and bustling with yuan banknotes changing hands between Chinese, Kokang and Burmese merchants. Since fighting broke out between government forces and Kokang rebels on 9 February, it has become something of a ghost town – Kokang-Chinese residents have poured across the border to refugee shelters in nearby Nansan, while Burmese civil servants and workers have grabbed whatever transport they could to make the long trail to Lashio.